Josh Thompson is finally releasing some music his fans have been clamoring for over the course of several years, and he's giving Taste of Country readers an exclusive first listen.

Thompson released his debut album, Way Out Here, in 2010 via Columbia Records and transferred to RCA Nashville in 2011, where he released two singles, “Comin’ Around” and “Change.” Thompson parted ways with the label before releasing an album, and went on to release Turn It Up under a new deal with Show Dog-Universal in 2014.

He recently signed a new deal with ole Digital, the world’s fastest-growing independent rights company, and longtime fans will finally get to hear his “lost album” from his stint at RCA as part of the deal, which also addresses live and video content, as well as the potential for another studio project down the line. He is releasing the long-buried material as two EPs, with the first half, Change: The Lost Record Vol. 1, set to drop on Oct. 9.

"I always had the intention of releasing this record as two EPs at some point in my life," Thompson tells Taste of Country, "and now it’s the perfect time in my life to go ahead and release it and do a digital campaign and start putting these songs in the set, and get this record out finally."

"Same Ol' Plain Ol' Me" features a mid-tempo groove with a catchy guitar part, and the lyrics address the virtues of staying true to yourself in the face of change: "You can take me out the pickup truck and put me in a Cadillac / Shave my face and cut my hair and put some new clothes on my back / Sit me down in a fancy restaurant, but I'll still order up ketchup and sweet tea / I'll be the same ol' plain ol' me."

Thompson says the music shows the progression between his two major label efforts.

"This would be bridging the gap between Way Out Here and Turn It Up. It was more rootsy, sonically and production-wise," he tells us. "The songs are lyrically equivalent to Way Out Here, but had a little more — not so much party, a little more reflective, looking back at where you’ve been, where you’re going, and just loving who you are right now. So it’s definitely a gap to bridge between the two records, that nobody got to hear. So I’m excited to be able to fill in the blank, because there were four years between two records that I was making music, but most people didn’t hear it."